Ok so I come form a vary large Irish catholic family, and by the wonders of myspace have managed to find around 5 of my first cousins on there as well, I have even found my lovely older brother on facebook, which I was pirtty surprised about as he’s never been the “social media” kind of guy.
Are we now going to have “families” online, the ability that my brother could tag me as “his sister” and other members of your family can be named appropriately shows the possibilities for a “virtual family”.
The worry is how we represent ourselves online, for example I double checked that there weren’t any incriminating pictures of myself that my cousins and brother could quiz me about next time I see them, showing that I’m presenting a certain side of myself online that may not be in keeping with other peoples perceptions.
This all got me thinking about family, I read my cousins blog, also entitled ‘family’, and it spoke of how proud she is to come from such a large yet close family, who have of course had there ups and downs. Since a young age I've been very aware I come from an interesting extended family and enjoyed the semi-infamous status we adorned around the midlands where most of them still live today. My Nan & Grandad followed the strict Catholic regime and my nan heroically carried, produced, popped out and nurtured 11 children (My late father being one of them) and remarkably cared for a further 3!
Now that the second generation of “kids” are coming thorough, me and my 24, (first cousins on my dads side) are the larger representation of “the family”. With most of us now being in our 20’s or 30’s, I find it strange seeing them on myspace, and have noticed more that a lot of them put “catholic” in the religion status.
However I find with most people my age the stsu more common is “atheist” . Don’t get me wrong I have never been one to argue about someone’s beliefs, but it also strikes me as the thing people do these days, almost the norm.
The worry is how we represent ourselves online, for example I double checked that there weren’t any incriminating pictures of myself that my cousins and brother could quiz me about next time I see them, showing that I’m presenting a certain side of myself online that may not be in keeping with other peoples perceptions.
This all got me thinking about family, I read my cousins blog, also entitled ‘family’, and it spoke of how proud she is to come from such a large yet close family, who have of course had there ups and downs. Since a young age I've been very aware I come from an interesting extended family and enjoyed the semi-infamous status we adorned around the midlands where most of them still live today. My Nan & Grandad followed the strict Catholic regime and my nan heroically carried, produced, popped out and nurtured 11 children (My late father being one of them) and remarkably cared for a further 3!
Now that the second generation of “kids” are coming thorough, me and my 24, (first cousins on my dads side) are the larger representation of “the family”. With most of us now being in our 20’s or 30’s, I find it strange seeing them on myspace, and have noticed more that a lot of them put “catholic” in the religion status.
However I find with most people my age the stsu more common is “atheist” . Don’t get me wrong I have never been one to argue about someone’s beliefs, but it also strikes me as the thing people do these days, almost the norm.
I find people who are “atheist” a lot more vocal than the religious subset of our age range, maybe that’s just because of the people I know?
I would also disagree with anyone shouting there mouth off about certain religions and cults and I don’t adhere to all the bible teachings and spend every Sunday morning at church, However I feel proud that my parents decided to bring me up in that way, and I believe my moral judgments and basic understandings were all developed with the help of religion.
I think this has just shown me that the internet makes it easy for us to express more than just our sexual orientation and age, and the deep and meaningfull statuses are the ones so often overlooked, and without sounding too postmodern, its just more evidence that there is a break down of dominant ideologies our culture and society once relied upon.
I think this has just shown me that the internet makes it easy for us to express more than just our sexual orientation and age, and the deep and meaningfull statuses are the ones so often overlooked, and without sounding too postmodern, its just more evidence that there is a break down of dominant ideologies our culture and society once relied upon.
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